Whew!

I'll just start off with the most important fact of last night's Amazing Race, and then I'll move on to my recap: the hippies escaped elimination again!!! They got me this season by putting the two non-elim rounds so close to one another and so close to the end of the race. I didn't expect that last night and was sooooo happy! :)

Okay, so we started the round by traveling to Swan Bells. I pretty much figured when Phil explained the task that the bells would have operating hours, allowing everyone to catch up. They did. MoJo has gotten seriously hostile toward the hippies, and I just do not get why. I understand them being angry when they got yielded, but their anger started long before then, and I've always said yielding is just part of the game anyway. But that aside, those two need to take some Nice Pills.

I've been proud of the way my hippies have played the game until last night when they tried to stir up dissension by starting a rumor about Eric and Monica. That's not cool, and they're better than that. Also, trying to take Mojo's cab when it was clear it was Mojo's? Tsk, tsk boys.

Eric and Jeremy are a-holes. Cancelling everyone's taxis is cheating in my book. That's like stealing people's money. That's no longer "playing the game." And it was SUCH karma that their taxi didn't show either! I might've felt bad for Mojo for getting the blame on that except that they're just such jerks, they sort of invite people to think something like that about them. Nobody would ever think Ray and Yo would do something like that, even if they had the only cab that showed up. You get back what you put out there, people.

How about that airport worker asking MoJo for a bribe?! And on camera! What is Australia now...Mexico? It was pretty funny, though, when they offered a kiss from Monica to the guy as a bribe and he just looked at her totally unimpressed. I'll bet Ms. Thang ain't used to that!

Crocodyle Park. Again, a place with operating hours and the chance for everyone to catch up. If this were a Roadblock, I SO would have had my partner do the task of wading through the crocs instead of me! As it was, I was suprised Monica had the gumption to do it.

Batchelor. Hippies yield Mojo. Yeah, they did. And forgive me if I can't find my sympathy for them. I wanted to slap Monica when she whined about how "It's not fair," that the hippies stopped their car sooner and ran and got to the Yield first. How is it unfair to stop your car further back? Oh, and don't even act like the hippies are jerks for yielding you - you SO would've done the same thing if you'd gotten there first! You're so much more hostile than the hips. Or when you said to Tyler that if y'all weren't in the race, "I'd beat you down," did you mean at cards? It was beautiful when you missed the sand running out on your timer because you were arguing.

Roadblock: Skydive. This is becoming a refrain for me, but gotta toss that one to my partner. I'm not good with heights, and hurling myself out of an airplane is not on my lists of things I must do before I die. Interesting "on the ground" action, why was Jeremy flirting with Yolanda? What was that?

Magnetic Termite Mounds. Those were freaky! I had no idea that's what termite mounds look like. I wonder why they build them like that - seems inefficient.

Detour: Wet or Dry. I would've chosen Wet, and it would've been a bad choice. Normally, I don't choose the super-physical tasks. You tire yourself out and waste time if you can't do it and have to switch. But I figured the swimming sounded okay, because I'm a good swimmer. But since both teams that chose that fell behind, clearly the aboriginal horns were the better choice. Oh, and Yolanda said she can't swim. I may have addressed this back in Russia, but who does this race if they can't swim? Swimming and driving stick - might want to learn those before going on TAR.

Pit Stop: Lake Bennett. Phil dodging the lasso guy was pretty funny. Ray and Yo coming in first was cool, and the Mercedes lease seemed to be just what they both wanted, so that was cool. How big a jerk is Joseph - flipping off the hippies for no reason whatsoever as they drove down the road? BOY that guy's karma must be rancid. It was so great when he thought the hippies were out, and then they weren't!

Here's hoping the Hips can pull magic again next leg and stay in it.